


Brand New

by Cryptographic_Delurk



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: F/F, Past Isabela/Merrill - Freeform, Post-Canon, Soldier's Peak (Dragon Age), Vaginal Fisting, sex that may be transactional in nature (?)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:27:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23936080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryptographic_Delurk/pseuds/Cryptographic_Delurk
Summary: With the Exalted March approaching Kirkwall, Merrill negotiates a place that she and the Eluvian can stay safe, and comes to learn some intimate things about Warden Commander Tabris in the process.
Relationships: Merrill/Female Tabris (Dragon Age)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	Brand New

**Author's Note:**

> The year is 2020 and I wrote this in response to a kink meme prompt from 2013. COVID brings out strange things in all of us. The prompt, which can be found [here](https://dragonage-kink.dreamwidth.org/80751.html?thread=339417455), is: “Any f/f pairing. Both of them saying ‘I've never done anything like this before’ and both of them lying through their teeth. With a bonus for rare pairs.” And then someone suggested Merrill/Tabris, and I ran with it, albeit with ‘through their teeth’ interpreted rather loosely.
> 
> The story only scratches the tip of the iceberg, but its underbelly includes a lot of implications about the Tabris origin story, compulsory heterosexuality as per Alienage arranged marriages, expectations regarding female chastity and virginity. Please take care.
> 
> Things ended up a bit plotty, and you can consider it some kind of postcanon AU.

There was no good place in Kirkwall to be an apostate with a magic mirror, not with the Exalted March on its way. Merrill had at one time been able to rely on being too small and girlish and _elvhen_ for passing guards and Templars to consider much a threat. But those times were long gone, and now not even the combined influence of Aveline’s position, Varric’s money, and The Champion’s favour would be enough to guarantee her safety and that of the Eluvian. So different courses of action were suggested and dismissed, until they happened on one that was, if not perfect, liveable.

“Don’t let yourself get taken in, Daisy,” Varric said, when the letters came back and the arrangements had been set. “I doubt the Wardens would agree to take you and your mirror in, if they didn’t think they could use it for themselves.”

“That is very perceptive of you, Varric,” Merrill said, although it wasn’t particularly. She was not a fool who believed so much in the goodwill of others that she might hide out at the Warden’s without cost. This was just the latest chapter in a story where there were no good options, only better or worse ones. The world had never seen fit to give Merrill compassion and sweetmeats and lyrium. She got hostility and sour lemons and blood instead, and she used them all to the best of her ability.

But part of Merrill was hopeful nonetheless. Anders had spoken highly of the Warden Commander. And although Anders was hardly a voice of knowledge and reason on the subject of the Elvhen, Merrill still considered him a passably good judge of character. And beyond that, the Warden Commander had managed a successful alliance with the Dalish during the Fifth Blight, and according to Anders she was good friends with another Dalish outcast by the name of Velanna, and beyond that Warden Commander Tabris was an elf herself. So Merrill was given reason to think whatever arrangement they came to about the Eluvian and the Crossroads and Merrill’s research on the removal of the taint – it would at least be an arrangement made in good faith and with Merrill’s concerns in mind.

Isabela was right, as she had the tendency to be. Sailing was not nearly so bad when one was allowed to wander about the vessel and sit up on deck. Merrill was not allowed to climb the ship’s “crow’s nest”, she discovered after the fact. But while she’d been up there, it had been magnificent to see from one side of the Waking Sea to the other.

There were other discomforts, even without the seasickness. She had forgotten how cold Ferelden could be, after so long in Kirkwall. And even as she procured more and more scarves and furs, and even a pair of wooly boots that scratched her feet, she still felt colder and colder as she climbed the land up to Soldiers Peak along with the convoy carrying her mirror.

The Warden Commander Tabris was an intriguing woman. She was at times brusque and direct, but evasive and guarded at others – like a more stern Isabela. She was also quite beautiful, with dark hair and dark hands and plush lips, which was also like Isabela. But, unlike Isabela, Tabris had an intimidating aura that seemed to deflect flattery and joviality, and Merrill was not quite sure if it was affected purposefully or if it was something that had subconsciously taken hold of the woman. She suspected the latter, because every once in a while Tabris seemed to realise it, and cracked its facade with a smile and a bit of dry humour.

Merrill came to know these things over a series of evenings. Tabris dined in her own quarters, instead of in the common halls with the soldiers. But each day she invited different guests to dine with her and discuss the base’s operations, the latest foray into the Deep Roads, the movements of hunting parties and herds of elk, or whatever personal matters her guests wished. Since her guests seemed to vary widely – from seasoned officers, to merchants and craftsmen, to new recruits fresh from the chopping block to, on one memorable occasion, a blood mage named Avernus – what they wished to discuss covered an innumerable breadth of topics.

Merrill herself was invited as a guest for all these dinners, and was encouraged to talk about any number of things – her time in Kirkwall’s Alienage and the companions she kept there, her disagreements with her Clan, her time in Ferelden before the Blight – anything but what the Wardens intended to do with her Mirror, and how they might aid her in her research of Elvhen magic and history.

“Velanna’s not due back at the Peak for another two weeks. And she will have my head if I don’t include her in a discussion about what to do with an Ancient Elvhen Relic.” Tabris gave half of an apologetic smile, but there were no gaps in her demeanour that invited further question or retort.

In the intervening time- Merrill had been given a guest room, with the Eluvian propped up in the corner and covered with a grey and brown woven tarpaulin, and more or less free reign of the premises and surrounding wilderness. She spent time familiarising herself with the fortress, gathering herbs in the forest, and reaching out to various residents in the Peak – Elvhen recruits from the cities, the resident blood mage, the Drydens, an interesting dwarf named Dworkin who seemed to like explosives a bit too much. Merrill was especially keen to know of the non-Wardens in residence, and what kind of skills and resources they were meant to contribute in lieu of taking their vows to the Order.

Still, she was feeling exceptionally restless, anxious to know what would become of her and her decision to travel here, when Tabris came to her room and, with very little warning, kissed her full on the lips.

As she closed her eyes, pressed back against Tabris’s lips, and took her hand, Merrill wondered if this was part of the negotiating. At the very least, maybe it was something she was meant to participate in as a show of goodwill and hospitality between herself and the Wardens. And, if so, Merrill found she didn’t mind too much. Tabris had an attractive quality to herself, and she was very direct, and also an elf, and Merrill didn’t think she’d mind if it was her.

So Merrill found herself sitting at the foot of the bed in her underclothes, with Tabris laid out before her, legs spread, the striped blue of her tabard pulled back. And Merrill had three fingers in her, pressing gently against the silky wetness of her inner walls, when Tabris sighed and said:

“I've never done anything like this before.”

Merrill froze momentarily, and then drew her hand out to press back in with a fourth finger. It was a rather strange thing for Tabris to say, considering Merrill was nearly wrist deep in her and, while Merrill had done her best to be thorough and considerate opening her up, neither had there been a terrible amount of resistance. But Merrill wanted to say something in response, and to say the right thing, and the thing that came tumbling out of her mouth was:

“Don’t worry! I’ve never done anything like this before either!”

Tabris let out something like a laugh, that turned into a whimper, and then a moan. And Merrill managed to focus on what she was doing for another few seconds before the anxious babbling overcame her.

“I mean- Except with Mahariel… And Tamlen… And a half dozen times with Isabela,” she rushed out. “And that one time Isabela took me to the Blooming Rose with her and we- Oh,” she sighed. “I hope I haven’t disappointed you terribly.”

Tabris laughed and ground her hips down into Merrill’s hand with renewed fervour. And for a moment Merrill thought that would be the end of that discussion. She drew her hand out and stroked Tabris’s labia with her index finger, watching where her finger nail, bitten short, didn’t quite scratch the lips. She flicked Tabris’s clit a few times with her thumb, magicked up more grease, and prepared to give Tabris her whole hand.

“It was important to everyone in Denerim,” Tabris sighed, and then moaned as Merrill pressed into her. “Chastity.” It dropped from her mouth slowly, each syllable enunciated clearly. “Really big deal. Everyone expected me to- I was supposed to have been pure on my wedding day.”

Merrill’s eye darted to Tabris’s left hand, fingers curled into the bedsheets. She had never explained the significance of the band on her ring finger. Merrill guessed she still hadn’t – not really.

Tabris continued. “I’m not sure what the other girls did when- Human lordlings would sometimes come down to the Alienage to make trouble. I’m not sure how they concealed what happened from their husbands. Or maybe everyone just understood and allowed some leeway. Shianni never got married, so I don’t know.”

Merrill knew what this meant, more or less, and didn’t care much to dwell on the details of what humans did with alienage elves at the moment. “The Hahren arranges the marriages, right? To people you’ve never met before?” Merrill asked rhetorically. “It was that way in the Kirkwall Alienage. I didn’t like it much. It all felt very impersonal. But it wasn’t my culture to speak against.”

“I know it’s different with the Dalish,” Tabris agreed. She squirmed and bucked her hips, shuddered, and then lay limp and prone again, breathing heavily as Merrill flexed her fingers and pressed in and out. “My father wanted a marriage for me. I was resigned to it,” she said. “It didn’t work out. But not for the reasons we’re discussing.”

Merrill felt the sudden urge to kiss her. She couldn’t see Tabris’s face from here, much less reach up to kiss her lips. But maybe that was why Tabris was sharing this now – too intimate a conversation to have face to face.

Merrill pressed the cloth off Tabris’s stomach, and kissed the firm curve of her belly, light and affectionate. Then slowly moved lower, to meet with the point where her hand disappeared into the other woman.

Eventually, Tabris convulsed around her, and cried out in a restrained sort of way. Merrill pulled her hand free, covered in oil and slick.

Merrill wiped her hand against the sheet, and waited patiently for Tabris to recover. She squirmed a bit in her seat, uncomfortable with the friction between her thighs, and glanced nervously back at the Eluvian, as if to see if it was still there, and its face still covered. And eventually Tabris caught her breath and regained her composure, and sat up, pulling off her tabard and the rest of her leather armour.

“I suppose I should do you next. However you’d like it-?” she prompted, and leaned a little against Merrill’s shoulder.

“You know, I really haven’t done anything like this before,” Merrill said, in lieu of answering. “I mean, I have. But never with you. So I think that makes it special and new. It feels special.”

“Does it?” Tabris asked, her tone carefully guarded and free of inflection.

“Well, yes. Making love is so very intimate. I wouldn’t do it with someone I didn’t intend to get to know better.” And Merrill supposed this wasn’t entirely true, because there had been Denier and Adriano at the Rose. But it had been something she’d done with Isabela, for the sake of knowing Isabela better. And in the end she had gotten to know Denier and Adriano better too, at least a little. So it wasn’t entirely false either. And- “So this is brand new for me – seeing and hearing and touching you like this.”

Merrill did not know Tabris well enough to know if she was flattered in the way she was averted her eyes. But Merrill figured she might learn in time. Tabris rocked in her seat, and then leaned forward to kiss Merrill on the collarbone.

“I feel the same,” Tabris said. “I’d like to come to know you better as well.” She wrapped an arm around Merrill’s waist and squeezed. “Show me how.”


End file.
